Hi everybody, Today is September 21st, the first day of the autumn season though here, in the south of France, it looks like a summer day, warm and sunny! I wonder what is the weather like in Scotland now… Is it as beautiful as it was, 179 years ago, in that quiet and beautiful corner of the Scottish Borders … Continue reading →
Hi everybody! Hope this article finds you well and enjoying life. 🙂 We received a letter in reference with the restoration of Sir Walter Scott’s House in the Borders region of Scotland and thought it would be great to share its contents as it is a cause that is close to our heart. Samantha Hobrough is part of the … Continue reading →
While travelling all over Scotland we’ve discovered a great number of ruins and visited some of them, from the grandiose remains of castles, abbeys and churches, often set in dramatic landscapes, to the more modest and heartbreaking crofts and villages burnt during the infamous period of the Highlands evictions in the 18th and 19th centuries… We’ve also visited a number … Continue reading →
Hi Mairiuna! Delighted to read your last post 🙂     As we have not had the chance to visit this architectural gem by night, as suggested by Sir Walter Scott in his marvelous poem ” The Lay of the Last Minstrel”, this little video created with the photos we took while visiting the site will inspire a certain “sense of place”…    … Continue reading →
Melrose Abbey is a religious, historical and architectural landmark in Scotland, one you must not miss when you visit the Scottish Borders, together with the three other very beautiful Border abbeys : Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Kelso. They are in ruins but we love them all, especially Melrose and Dryburgh where Sir Walter Scott is buried with other members of his … Continue reading →
Mairiuna, as a continuity to your post on Greenknowe Tower, let’s put together a video, mixing the recording that Jean-Claude did of the sound produced when opening the iron gate (the yett) and the pictures we took while investigating this beautiful ruined tower in Berwickshire. 🙂 . Although local folk tales, as you mentioned, said this place is the most haunted place in the area, … Continue reading →
It was the end of a grey and rainy summer day when we arrived at Greenknowe Tower, half a mile west of the village of Gordon and about 6 miles north from Smailholm Tower, as the crow flies. It is located on the A6105, close to the junction with the A6089. We had had a busy day, travelling in the … Continue reading →
By the green hill and clear blue heaven. It was a barren scene, and wild, Where naked cliff’s were rudely piled; But ever and anon between Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green; And well the lonely infant knew Recesses where the wall-flower grew, And honey-suckle loved to crawl Up the low crag and ruin’d wall. I deem’d such nooks the … Continue reading →
. Under the shade of more than centenary cedars, on a loop of the River Tweed, amidst the beautiful ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, lies Sir Walter Scott, the beloved man and great Scottish writer who, having done so much to celebrate his country, finally died like the heroe of one of his novels, with courage and dignity. Since his death, … Continue reading →
Today people are discovering or rediscovering the great authors of the past. Walter Scott is one of them, a most famous one and not only in Scotland. In France, for example, a new translation of his books is under way, in the prestigious “Bibliothèque de la Pleiade”, each novel being translated, introduced, and annotated by a French university scholar. Henri … Continue reading →
We can’t help returning to Abbotsford each time we go to Scotland to pay homage to the great writer. Sir Walter Scott’s presence can still be felt in each room of the vast house and along the quiet alleys of the beautiful park surrounding it. In some corner of the garden you may happen to fall upon the statue of … Continue reading →
